Taming C(60) fullerene: tuning intramolecular photoinduced electron transfer process with subphthalocyanines

Two subphthalocyanine–C(60) conjugates have been prepared by means of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of (perfluoro) or hexa(pentylsulfonyl) electron deficient subphthalocyanines to C(60). Comprehensive assays regarding the electronic features – in the ground and excited state – of the resulting conjugates revealed energy and electron transfer processes upon photoexcitation. Most important is the unambiguous evidence – in terms of time-resolved spectroscopy – of an ultrafast oxidative electron transfer evolving from C(60) to the photoexcited subphthalocyanines. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of an intramolecular oxidation of C(60) within electron donor–acceptor conjugates by means of only photoexcitation.